Hat Factory

PL Hat Factory 56

r13

Train God
Aug 30, 2010
259
286
Payload map that takes place in the world famous factory of hats, Mann Co. Millinery in Poco Falls, Washington.

The Red Team has been hired to guard the gift shop at the factory while routine maintenance is done on the death pit. It seems the gears are wearing down faster than expected.

The Blue Team, however, has been locked out of the gift shop and are sure that the Red Team is stealing the best hats. They heard that the Reds have been seen wearing some nice hats. To solve this problem, Blue Team has hired themselves to push a bomb through the front door of the gift shop.


Update: after 2607 days, the Hat Factory has been updated and optimized for your enjoyment.
 
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Kube

Not the correct way to make lasagna
aa
Aug 31, 2014
1,342
1,849
NNNNOOOOIIIIISSSSYYYYY

seriously, that is some insanely noisy details there, it's a little overboard.

It'll probably look better in-game, but I agree, hard detailing work can go to waste when it's all piled together. Oddly enough, I would recommend looking at the top of Hightower to see what it does about a bunch of high-up buildings in one place.

But other than that, this looks great! :thumbup:
 

killohurtz

Distinction in Applied Carving
aa
Feb 22, 2014
1,016
1,277
I took some time to run through this, and here's what I think:

The visual noise at the playable area level isn't too bad, but the map as a whole is very prop-spammy, especially in the areas with quicklime sacks and shipping crates. Try to use more brushes and a variety of props as opposed to the same prop over and over. You could also get away with cutting out several of the props on the building faces, since those are extremely cluttered and aren't the focus of the map.

There wasn't a whole lot of height variation until the final stretch of the track. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but when the cart stays at the same elevation for long periods of time, the gameplay can get a little stale.

You were generous with the flanks, but I think there are too many in some places. I tried to run through every route I could find, and I can't see many of them being used often because they're so far out of the way. You could also cut back on the shutter doors around the first point; they're all two-way and you really don't need that many.

Aside from those things, I can see this map being pretty fun on a full server. I particularly liked the little details like the hat-shaped clouds and the crate chute.
 
Apr 14, 2013
663
343
2015-02-14_00004.jpg

$_32.JPG


Why did you install all them chimneys sideways?
 

r13

Train God
Aug 30, 2010
259
286
Why did you install all them chimneys sideways?

Because it looks cool. This is meant to be a factory. Factories are visually busy places. I tried to reuse the default props in new ways to achieve this rather than design and build all new props.

i have some of the chimney type you linked as well in there set up "properly" too, if it helps.
 

r13

Train God
Aug 30, 2010
259
286
I'd personally suggest a playthrough. And... It is currently being offered on the Slaughterhouse 32 man server. It usually gets voted up once or twice an evenings. Stop on in and ask for it to be voted on.

They have played it enough that they actually play the map rather than wander around finding all the interesting places to get yourself killed.
 

DrLambda

L69: Teeheehee, Member
aa
Feb 18, 2015
458
475
I tried it a bit against bots, even though they are pretty bad unless you work on the nav, which i'm way to lazy to do. I really had to try it, the screenshots from blue spawn looked way to impressive.

I feel like it's kinda easy to get lost on the forward spawns. I played a few rounds now and i'm still not able to tell you how to get to the cart on some forward spawns, and it gets even harder to know where my opponents are coming from. I really think you need more and bigger signs to help the newer players.

Also, the map is noticeably more expensive on my computer compared to other Valve and popular custom maps. Might be because my computer is kinda bad, but i hope there is still room for optimization in this development stage.

Third, some parts of the map look really weird when you have r_3dsky 0 on (per example the balcony in the back of blue spawn.) That's not a big point and obviously changes nothing about the gameplay, and i probably didn't realize it at most of the time, but it really threw me off because there are so many hard edges in plain sight.

Aside from that, i think the polished parts of the map look gorgeous and i'm looking forward to play it more in the future. The layout looks interesting, hope i understand it completely soon. I might have to test it some more with real people because the bots tend to get lost too.
 
Apr 14, 2013
663
343

I'm sorry, but I can't take this really seriously. It just looks so un-tf2 style- I mean- tf2 is grotesque, but not that grotesque. Pipes, side-chimneys, and a mix of wood+brick functioning as a wall of some absurd blast furnace, standing on more wood, colorful smoke (which looks kinda cool, actually) puffing all around. It's crazy. Too crazy. Even for tf2.

I know it's alpha and detail is subject to change. So I say maybe you should start with a more "clean" detail- like just a few key props, some basic textures.
 

Clone5184

L2: Junior Member
Aug 11, 2014
59
26
I noticed a piano at blu's spawn. I feel as though that seems a bit out of place. I noticed that hat on the sign was a missing texture. Really like the other custom textures though. It also feels like you should be able to get onto the rocket Launchpad.

(also, what are those weird ghost things flying around in the sky?)
 
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Oct 6, 2008
1,947
445
Ok, I tried it out last night as a sticky jumper demoman and in this regard I can finally say that a map has been built for this class.

That being said I don't know if it's got the TF2 feeling - it's very bright for some reason (as mine are usually dark maps). I don't know what it is but something bugs me about it, not sure what, even though the map is very well done. I think it might be because there's too much visual noise going on - too much to look at all the time.

Two bad spots I noticed - entering the ware house with the cargo containers. The entire map has 40 alt routes everywhere until you get here - there's only one entrance (several but only in the one doorway) get an engy base set up in there and blue will never get through it. Spies can't get up top of th containers unless it's via teleporters. I even tried to go around using the sticky jumper but there's a no clip there preventing me from doing so. What would be good is to remove it so that jumpers classes can go around.

Last cap also looks like it may be impossible for blue to cap it. Again same player clip. Directly opposite of where the cart tips - remove the player clip on that cliff - allow sticky demomen to jump from there up to cap point - might be interesting way to cap the cart. also below there there's no trigger hirt that kills you, another spot on the map as well.
 

r13

Train God
Aug 30, 2010
259
286
Notes on version 33 [currently in progress]:

I'm doing an optimization pass across the whole map. Cheers on the feedback, as it's what has me moving in this direction.

Did a prop removal pass as well. Got rid of at least 50% of the props at the moment. Didn't get much much in terms of frame rate from the effort tho.

Closed up two minor flanking hallways already.

Polished up the grinder area. It currently eats crates and belches fire. Silently at the moment though as the ambient_generic isn't behaving as flagged.

Made a new bouncy toy for the blue spawn. It's a bouncy crate. You can beat the crap out of it while shouting incoherently about keys.

I'm currently stitching together a new roof line and set of sky brushes for the map. The biggest perf hit locations i found with +showbudget were the result of the looking at 1/2 the map at certain spot and directions. The new roof and sky has solved most of that. Some horizontal hint brushes helps the rest of the way. I rarely drop under 60 throughout the map now. Still have some more work on this, which is what i'm doing now.

Oh and best word yet: grotesque. That had me giggling for a couple of days.

Cheers!
 

r13

Train God
Aug 30, 2010
259
286
More Notes on version 33 and a Preview copy!

As I've mentioned above, I've been working on optimizing the map. It's at a point where I hope I've solved the frame rate issues people were having with it before. I could use a few testers to verify that though. If you'd like a preview copy to take a look: http://bit.ly/1bRaCLM

oh btw if you or the bouncy ball or crate fall into the pit in blue spawn, it explodes now.

cheers
 
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r13

Train God
Aug 30, 2010
259
286
Version 33 is released: http://bit.ly/hatfactory33

April 17th Version 33

Major optimization pass. This drove most of the changes below as well:
-Large change in the way the map is laid out: Changes to the sky volumes and the factory cliffs
-Cart path changes: optimized the path entities as well as added in two more auto cart /roll forward areas. one after each cap.
-The container room was rebuilt, loosened up and added the proper gates that close when you get to the kilns.
-The valley area was polished up.
-Several small rooms and hallways have been closed off to streamline the areas more.
-The last blue spawn has been rebuilt reduce its size and complexity.
-added dynamic signs to help with lost players in spots
-added doors in spots that trigger on caps to keep people from wandering off into the factory too soon
-added a crate grinder in a back hallway. When it eats a crate it burps fire. When it eats a player it burps fire. are crates people?
-the first blue spawn's death pit will explode if a player or physics item falls into it.
-Did a prop removal pass as well. Got rid of at least 50%-60% of the props at the moment. Didn't get much much in terms of frame rate from the effort tho.
-Made a new bouncy toy for the blue spawn. It's a bouncy crate. You can beat the crap out of it while shouting incoherently about keys.
 
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